City leaders walk for peace in Southwest Philadelphia after 17-year-old girl shot, killed
The Brief
SOUTHWEST PHILADELPHIA - A walk for peace was held in Southwest Philadelphia Thursday evening, just days after a 17-year-old girl was shot and killed in an alleyway.
Community members say they are sad and frustrated.
What we know
Almost a week after a 17-year-old girl was shot and killed in a Southwest Philadelphia neighborhood, Council President Kenyatta Johnson hosted a peace-not-guns public safety walk.
Jada Gray was shot in the chest March 28th around 11:40pm in the 7000 Block of Elmwood Avenue. Investigators believe she may have been killed during an attempted robbery.
On Thursday, Johnson was joined by District Attorney Larry Krasner and other community leaders knocking door to door to hear neighbors' concerns and offer resources.
What they're saying
"Thats too close to home," said Deborah Brewer who lives in the Southwest Philadelphia neighborhood. "I've been here 10 years and now I'm thinking about getting out of here as soon as I can because it don't make no sense."
Gray's death is one of the latest shootings involving young people in recent weeks. So far this year, at least 25 teens have been victims of gun violence.
"We gotta focus on supporting our young people and let them know there are better ways to resolve conflict besides picking up a gun," said Council President, Kenyatta Johnson.
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Police chief blames state, doesn't address rise of violent crime in clip after OTR killing
Cincinnati Police Chief Teresa Theetge placed the blame for the fatal stabbing of an Over-the-Rhine man on the state for not telling them the accused killer, on probation, had broken off his ankle monitor months earlier. Theetge said in a video released the evening of June 10 that her officers must be able to trust the people they arrest will be prosecuted and held accountable after they are released. It's the first public comment by the chief since the killing of 46-year-old Patrick Heringer on June 4. Through her spokesman, Theetge has declined multiple requests for an interview with The Enquirer this past week. The killing shocked the city and raised fears about crime and public safety, particularly in Heringer's Over-the-Rhine neighborhood. Police say Heringer was fatally stabbed inside his East McMicken Avenue home by 38-year-old Mordecia Black, a recently released convicted felon who is now facing charges of murder and aggravated burglary. Black, prosecutors said at his arraignment, was released from prison on probation with an ankle monitor in January. He cut off his ankle monitor a month later and has been on the run since. Theetge and Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval said city police were never notified when Black cut off his ankle monitor. More: Mayor meets with wife of slain OTR man, says suspect 'should not have been walking free' "Law enforcement is only one part of the public safety puzzle," Theetge said in the video statement. "When we arrest and charge violent offenders, there must be clear policies and procedures in place to manage their reintegration into society, and to ensure they are held accountable to the conditions of their post-release supervision." JoEllen Smith, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections, said the state lost track of Black after he was released, Enquirer media partner Fox 19 reports. The Enquirer has reached out to the agency for more information about how that could happen. The mayor echoed much of what the chief said earlier, telling The Enquirer in a statement he is ready to help "champion needed reforms at the state level." In the video, Theetge also read the names of five homicide victims who have been killed within the past two weeks: Treasure Thomas, Laura Schueler, Jayshaun Cornelius, Jevon Kirk and Heringer. "The truth is painful. We do not have a crystal ball. We cannot always predict when or where violence will strike," Theetge said. "What we can do and will do is continue to serve as a barrier between good and evil." The second-year chief called for more officers, referencing a rising number of retirements to the roughly 1,000-person force. She touched on an uptick in certain property crimes, but did not address the state of violent crime in the city. More: Cincinnati sees uptick in violent crime in 2025; all crime up in Over-the-Rhine A review of city data by The Enquirer shows there have been more violent crimes citywide so far this year than in most recent years, according to year-to-date data since 2021. Only 2024 was higher. City data shows there have been 778 violent crime incidents so far this year. On average, over the past four years, there were 732 violent crimes year-to-date. Homicides and shootings are both down citywide. Fatal and nonfatal shootings are down by about 25% compared to the same time last year and are lower than they've been since at least 2022. Homicides, including stabbings, are down about 15% and are at the lowest levels they've been at since at least 2021. Ahead of their respective public statements on June 10, Theetge and Pureval both met privately with Heringer's wife, Sarah Heringer. In a letter she read to a Local12 reporter, Sarah said she watched her husband bleed out in front of her. More: Mayor meets with wife of slain OTR man, says suspect 'should not have been walking free' Pureval wouldn't discuss details of the meeting with Sarah Heringer but, in a statement, said the man accused of the crime "should not have been walking free." In a Facebook post after the meeting, Sarah Heringer said she wants to know why there was "no system connecting the parole board with local law enforcement." 'I told him directly: that is something I hold him accountable for,' Sarah Heringer wrote on Facebook. 'I also told him he needs to find out what other holes exist in his system before another family pays the price. He agreed to do that.' She vowed that she will work with the city on reforming the system and sharing the results with the public "every step of the way." Sarah Heringer said she wants to make sure this doesn't happen again to someone else. Enquirer reporter Scott Wartman contributed to this story. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Police Chief blames state for Over-the-Rhine man's killing
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The California Mom at the Center of Trump's Crackdown on School Gender Policies
In 2022, near the end of her youngest child's freshman year in high school, a Southern California mom spotted an unfamiliar male name on an online biology assignment: Toby. When she asked the teacher about it, he shrugged it off as a nickname. While scrolling through Instagram, the mother noticed her child's friends also called the teen Toby. So she began digging for further evidence of something she had started to suspect — that the ninth grader, with the school's support, was transitioning from female to male. 'I'm like 'Hey, you can't deny it anymore' ' said Lydia, who did not want to use her last name out of a desire to protect her child, now 17. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter The school's principal, following guidance that allows students to decide whether to inform parents of their gender identity, refused to meet with her. But she found clues elsewhere — an alternate ID card with the name Toby stuffed in a backpack, and emails between district staff discussing which name to use in the yearbook. Over time, she discovered her child's transition was an open secret at school — one kept by staff, administrators, a district equity officer, the superintendent, even the president of the local teachers union. 'They were strategizing against me,' Lydia said. Her experience now lies at the center of a major push by the U.S. Department of Education to clamp down on policies that allow schools to conceal changes in students' gender identity from parents. In a March press release announcing an investigation into California, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said teachers and counselors should stay out of 'consequential decisions' about children's sexual identities. Officials are probing similar allegations in Maine and Washington state. In an unprecedented move, the department is threatening to pull millions of dollars in federal education funding from all three states. But it's putting all schools on notice. In guidance, federal officials warned states and districts that their support of student 'gender plans' had become a 'priority concern.' For educators, the message was as stunning as its rationale. The department is relying on a novel, and according to some critics, incorrect, interpretation of a 50-year-old student privacy law known as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA. Related The law is typically used to safeguard student records and allow parents to inspect them. But it doesn't compel schools to inform parents how their children identify in the classroom. If schools link a record to a student, 'the parent has a right of access to it if they request it,' said LeRoy Rooker, who oversaw compliance with FERPA at the Education Department for over 20 years. But 'the school doesn't have to be proactive and call and say 'Hey, we did this.' ' Department leaders appear to be stretching the reach of the law in an attempt to bolster conservative arguments that schools are meddling in deeply personal decisions that should be left to parents. In response to the Washington investigation, state Superintendent Chris Reykdal said in a statement that his state is the 'latest target in the administration's dangerous war against individuals who are transgender' and that officials are twisting student privacy laws 'to undermine the health, safety and well-being of students.' To Julie Hamill, a Los Angeles-area attorney who asked the department to investigate, Lydia's story demonstrates that a law designed to keep parents informed is now working against them. Related 'The parents are in the dark,' said Hamill of the conservative California Justice Center. 'Parents will not know student records are being withheld unless they've somehow discovered it on their own.' In tackling the role of schools in student gender transitions, the department is dipping into one of the more emotionally fraught issues in the culture war, one that President Donald Trump campaigned on and weaponized once he was back in the White House. In one of his first executive orders, Trump said, without evidence, that schools are 'steering students toward surgical and chemical mutilation.' In March, McMahon met with 'detransitioners' who reversed their gendering processes. She criticized the 'lengths schools would go to in order to hide this information from parents.' 'The parents are in the dark.' Julie Hamill, California Justice Center To many experts, the administration's scrutiny is out of proportion to the scope of the issue. In the overwhelming majority of cases, schools and students are just navigating preferred names and pronouns, and even those situations are infrequent. Multiple sources estimate that about 3% of teens are transgender. Far fewer are likely to approach school officials with a request for a name or pronoun change, said Brian Dittmeier, the director of Public Policy at GLSEN, which advocates for LGBTQ students. Loretta Whitson, executive director of the California Association of School Counselors, said it is 'rare' for school officials to discuss transitioning with students, and that her group's members say the only gender plans they've completed were done at the request of parents. At the same time, most Americans agree that schools should get parents' permission before changing a child's pronouns in school records. Polls in California and New Jersey found that roughly three-quarters of adults support mandatory parental notification. Lydia's story exemplifies that loss of trust in the system. The artist and former ballerina she thought of as her daughter began identifying as transgender upon entering Academy of the Canyons, a public high school in Santa Clarita, an upscale suburb of Los Angeles. Homeschooled since kindergarten, the teen wanted to pursue art and take advantage of options in their district. The school is located on a college campus where students can attend post-secondary classes while earning their high school diplomas. 'I thought it would be a good opportunity,' Lydia said. In the fall of 2021, while cleaning the ninth grader's bedroom, Lydia flipped through some art journals. But instead of schoolwork, she found disturbing sketches of bloody body parts and notes about wanting a chest binder, top surgery and a new name. 'Shocked and scared' that her child might be suicidal, her thoughts turned immediately to a friend of her son's who'd recently taken his own life, apparently without warning. 'No suicide notes. No threats,' she recalled. 'The ones that never use it as a weapon are the ones that follow through.' She began searching for answers online. Initially, she only found sites about supporting a child's transition — advice she rejected. Unlike many parents in her shoes, she's neither conservative nor religious. In fact, she quipped, an outsider might have assumed she was 'the poster mom for transitioning my kid.' Related She described her own parents — a Black father and a Jewish mother — as 'hippie artists' who raised her to be a 'free thinker' without religion. Lydia's mother changed her name to Michael in the 1960s because it was easier to make it in the art world with a man's name. A lifelong Democrat, Lydia voted against a ban on gay marriage when it was on the state ballot in 2008. But when it came time to have kids of her own, she embraced more conservative values, wanting to 'protect their childhood.' Speaking as a liberal, Lydia said, 'I really should have been like 'Yeah, sure, explore your transgenderism.'' But instead, she did the opposite, taking a hard line against the shift. 'I said ' I love you, but I'm not affirming you. This is not real.' ' That view belies a scientific consensus that some children can identify differently as young as 3 or 4. Other research shows children can experience strong distress due to gender dysphoria — feeling that their sex was misassigned at birth — starting at age 7. 'I love you, but I'm not affirming you.' Lydia, California mom In attempting to explain what was happening with her child, Lydia turned to a controversial theory of researcher Lisa Littman. In a 2018 paper, the former Brown University scientist described the rise in rapid onset gender dysphoria among adolescents as a 'contagion' driven by peer pressure and social media. 'I did what every parent did during the pandemic — let their kid be online way too much,' Lydia said. Littman's research methods drew criticism from her own university and the broader research community because she based her conclusions largely on reports from self-selecting parents recruited from online forums that were unsupportive, or at least skeptical, of gender transition. They included 4thwavenow, which labels itself as 'a community of people who question the medicalization of gender-atypical youth.' Littman later published an amended version of the paper, responding to the controversy and clarifying that the behavior she observed did not amount to a formal diagnosis. Her work, however, continues to drive conservative calls to eliminate trans-inclusive policies in school and inspire the views of the Trump administration — and Lydia. 'There is no such thing as a trans child,' Lydia said. It is a debate where the voices of kids directly affected are often absent. J.J. Koechell, a Wisconsin 20-year-old, transitioned in sixth grade after a suicide attempt. He now advocates for other LGBTQ students he says are 'entitled to some privacy and consent.' 'They're trying to figure things out and they don't want to get it wrong. To disappoint parents is a lot of weight on a struggling youth.' He watched the school district he attended, Kettle-Moraine, ban Pride flags and 'safe spaces.' In 2023, as the result of a lawsuit, leaders stopped allowing staff to refer to students by different names and pronouns without parents' permission. Some staff members retired or resigned over the controversy, including a librarian Koechell trusted. Koechell dropped out and is now finishing high school online. 'My teachers were all I had at school. I didn't have any friends,' he said. 'Coming out was a matter of life and death for me. My identity wasn't and still isn't optional.' Protecting students like Koechell is the purpose of a new California law — Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today's Youth, also known as the 'SAFETY Act.' It prohibits schools from requiring staff to disclose a child's gender identity to their parents. In announcing the Department of Education's investigation of the state, Secretary McMahon said the law 'appears to conflict with FERPA.' But GLSEN's Dittmeier highlighted that the legislation still requires schools to comply with the federal privacy law — and honor parents' requests for records. 'Coming out was a matter of life and death for me. My identity wasn't and still isn't optional.' J.J. Koechell, trans student advocate One department staffer is worried where the investigation could lead. 'This is irregular, based on our history — to take up an allegation [with] no official complaint, but one that is motivated by an attorney group that is bending the department's ear about something,' said an employee familiar with the case who asked to speak anonymously to protect his job. He said the administration's goal is to pressure states and districts into rescinding policies that allow students to decide when to go public with their gender identity. 'This will result in districts adopting forced outing and will result in harming children.' In California, the debate over parental notification was raging long before the current controversy. In 2023, police removed state Superintendent Tony Thurmond from a meeting in the Chino Valley Unified School District after a tense exchange with board members over the district's parental notification policy. He warned the board that their policy could 'put our students at risk because they may not be in homes where they can be safe.' The state later filed a lawsuit against the district as well as others that passed similar measures. Continuing its battle with Thurmond, Chino Valley is now suing the state over the SAFETY Act, saying that minors are 'too young to make life-altering decisions' without their parents. National data show that less than a third of trans and nonbinary students say their home is gender-affirming. A 2021 study found that transgender adolescents assigned female at birth were more likely than other teens to report being psychologically traumatized by parents or other adults in the home. 'There have been kids whose parents have physically abused them and kicked them out of the house when this information is disclosed,' said Amelia Vance, president of the Public Interest Privacy Center and an expert on student privacy. Even before California passed the SAFETY Act, the state education agency and the California School Boards Association urged schools to get students' permission before informing parents about changes in their gender identity. When officials at Hart Unified High School District refused to meet with Lydia, they cited a state law that protects trans students' access to programs, sports and facilities that align with their gender identity. On the advice of an advocacy group, Lydia initially filed a public records request in search of a 'secret social transition' plan she believed Academy of the Canyons maintained. She also asked for communications between her child and teachers using the 'non-birth name.' The district turned her down. Contacted by The 74, Hart Unified spokeswoman Debbie Dunn declined to answer questions about the investigation or Lydia's experience, but said officials would 'continue to follow the laws and procedures applicable to the district.' In January 2023, Lydia spoke at a school board meeting about being shut out by the district. Her story caught the attention of Board Member Joe Messina, a conservative radio talk show host. 'She came up to the podium one night and she was crying,' he said. 'She looked at the superintendent and said, 'I've reached out to you. You've not called me back'. She looked to the trustee who handles her area and she said, 'I've left you four messages. You've never called me back.' ' 'There have been kids whose parents have physically abused them and kicked them out of the house when this information is disclosed.' Amelia Vance, Public Interest Privacy Center Messina and Lydia talked after the meeting, and he connected her with the Pacific Justice Institute, a right-leaning law firm. He noted that the issue transcended their political differences. 'Lydia's a lifelong Democrat, and I'm an outspoken Republican,' Messina said. 'For her and I to come together — the rest of the world would say, 'What's wrong with you people?'' Even with advocates on her side, Lydia continued to face obstacles. For months, the Academy of the Canyons declined to release an autobiographical English essay written by her child under the name Toby. The district finally turned it over on advice from their lawyers. The essay revealed the child's trepidation about coming out to Lydia. The piece recounted a moment before the pandemic, when the student, then 11, broached the subject of being queer. Lydia said her child was first exposed to LGBTQ issues while participating in a homeschool theater group. 'The weather was overcast, and we were driving home from theater rehearsal,' the then-10th grader wrote. 'Once again summoning all my courage, I mentioned to her that one of my friends had confided in me about their attraction to girls, and that I too might be queer. Unfortunately, my mom's immediate response was dismissive and critical.' As parent-child confrontations often go, Lydia remembers it differently. She said she treated the declaration as a teachable moment.'We talked about what that word meant,' she said, 'and why I felt she had time as she grew up to really know what sexual orientation she would be.' In a memo, the district's lawyers also named the elephant in the room — that officials had been withholding the essay out of a desire to shield the child's shifting gender identity. 'In general, parents have the statutory right to review a student's classwork/homework,' the memo stated. 'This issue becomes clouded … if the classwork could reveal a student's gender identity/expression.' Despite refusing to accept that her child was transgender, Lydia said she tried to stay connected. In 2023, they attended over a dozen concerts together, seeing Hozier, Bastille and Penelope Scott — experiences that Lydia called 'part of the healing process.' The two went on a long-promised trip to Europe, during which Lydia gave her child an ultimatum: stop identifying as a boy or go back to being homeschooled. That fall, the school agreed to honor Lydia's wishes to cease social transitioning, but her child still resisted, asking teachers to continue using the name Toby. This time, the district let Lydia know. Lydia did not make her child available for an interview, saying 'she isn't ready to tell her side of the story.' Nearly two years later, she says her child, who graduated from high school last week, 'wants to put it all behind her.' While the teen identifies as a girl, the changes have been subtle. There are days when she dresses in what her mom called 'oversized, ugly boy shirts' and others when she does her makeup and wears more feminine clothes. Recently, she switched back to her birth name on all of her social media accounts. 'I get a little choked up,' Lydia said, 'but that's pretty huge.' The story might have ended there, but Lydia's two-minute plea to the Hart school board, shared across social media, reached other parent rights advocates just as Trump renewed his campaign for the White House. When the president took office, Hamill, with the California Justice Center, seized the opportunity to file a complaint with an administration guided by Project 2025, the right-wing Heritage Foundation's blueprint for the president's second term. Requiring schools to notify parents if a student changes their gender identity, which six states already do, is one of the tenets of the plan. Heritage expert Lindsey Burke, who joined the department Friday, also wants Congress to give FERPA more teeth by allowing parents to sue under the law. Currently, parents can only file a grievance with their state or the Education Department's privacy office — complaints that can languish for years. Privacy laws 'are a core part of [the administration's] arguments for how parental rights need to be respected and strengthened,' said Vance, the privacy expert. But the potential for lawsuits under FERPA, she added 'would be extremely messy and expensive for schools.' In April, the House education committee advanced a bill — the PROTECT Kids Act — that would require elementary and middle schools to secure parental consent before students change their pronouns or preferred names or use different bathrooms or locker rooms. The committee debate demonstrated the deep divisions over gender identity and how schools should accommodate LGBTQ students. Rep. Mark Takano, a California Democrat who is gay, offered a personal story. 'When I came out to my parents, it was at a time, place and manner of my own choosing,' he said. 'I would not have wanted anyone else to make that decision for me.' To Hamill, gender transition is much more than 'coming out' because it can lead to physical changes that some young adults later regret. Research shows that figure is about 1%, a fraction of those who undergo surgery. Even so, she said California's policies add up to an elaborate 'concealment scheme' that pits children against their parents. 'If you suspect the parents are abusive and they're going to harm the child, you have to report that to [child protective services],' she said. 'But the government cannot by default assume that every parent is harmful and is going to reject and hurt their children.'
Hamilton Spectator
5 days ago
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Accused in aggravated assault has history of driving offences
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He will make his next appearance in two weeks on June 18. The Herald has discovered that Clauson has a lengthy criminal record over the past several years, however, all of the charges and convictions registered against him are related to the Highway Traffic Act and there are no charges or convictions involving violence. Over the past three years, Clauson has been charged with and convicted of more than one count of driving while prohibited, refusal to provide a breath sample and one count of impaired driving. On Jan. 8, 2025, Clauson was sentenced to a 30-day jail sentence related to a charge of refusal to provide a breath sample filed on Nov. 8, 2024. On May 23, 2023, Clauson was charged with impaired driving, driving while suspended and refusing to provide a proper breath sample. On one of the driving charges he was facing, Clauson was convicted and ordered to pay a $2,000 fine and was prohibited from driving for two years. On another Highway Traffic Act charge, he was fined $575 and again prohibited from driving for two years. Back in 2016, Clauson was charged and convicted of breaching a court order. Following his arrest on the aggravated assault charge two weeks ago, Clauson was arrested and later released on conditions. Those conditions remain in place as he remains free on a bail order. The RCMP said no further details will be released at this time. ••• After a couple of very harrowing days for Vincent, his mother Roxanne, his stepfather Steve Zeiler and his siblings and large circle of friends, he was released from hospital and allowed to go home. After two very difficult weeks, it was discovered Vincent commenced what all signs indicate is going to be a full and complete recovery as all of his motor and neurological abilities had returned. In January, the Barking Parrot, where Florence had worked for more than five years, held a celebratory fundraising event for Vincent and his family. Florence was not only the special guest, but he helped cook up hot dogs for those attending. This comes after the community rallied behind Vincent, who was projected to miss several months of work as he continued to recover. The community helped raise more than $10,000 in a GoFund Me campaign. 'I'm so thankful for all the love and support I've received,' he said, breaking down near tears. 'It has been amazing.' He was feeling better with each passing day and is confident that will continue, he said. 'I'm doing really well,' he said. 'I'm just super focused on my side effects that have come with my brain injury. I'm going to continue working on the recommendations that the doctors gave me to make a full recovery from my injuries.' His stepfather. Steve Zeiler, said while he remains incredulous and upset Vincent was attacked by a stranger for no reason, his faith in humanity has largely been restored by the outpouring of emotional and financial support for his stepson. 'It has been unbelievable,' he said. 'We never ever thought there would be this kind of support. We knew a lot of people liked Vincent and would support him. My son is having a hard time speaking about this because he never imagined a whole community would be behind him and would show so much love and support. When he returned to the Barking Parrot after being released from hospital, the amount of people who gathered around him to give him a hug and wish him well was incredible, she said. 'The people he works with were telling him how much they love him and miss him and the customers were saying the exact same thing,' she said. 'He looked at me and said 'I honestly never realized I affected that many people.' Florence not only worked at the Barking Parrot, but held a second job at a liquor store and not being able to go to work has been tough on him, but he knows he has to take a slow, but steady approach to recovering, said his mother. 'He hinted he's feeling so good he might try and get back to work in two weeks, and we told him absolutely not,' said his mother. 'He loves to work and he'll be back as soon as the doctors tell him it's OK.' Florence's good friend Paige Powers, who worked with him at the liquor store, said she's thrilled his recovery has been so positive after spending several days worrying he might not recover at all. 'We didn't know he was going to recover like this and it's nice to see him back to being more or less himself,' she said. 'He's smiling and happy. We all miss him at work and we want him back as soon as possible.' Luke Shawyer, a manager at The Barking Parrot, said Vincent has long been a popular employee because he works hard and is a nice guy. This incident really upset a lot of his co-workers and they're thrilled he's on the road to recovery. 'Vinnie is a really hard worker who has been with us for many years and when you see something like this happen to a co-worker, it really hit home with our team here,' he said. When news spread the Vincent was the victim of this crime and he was undergoing serious surgery, there were a few dark days, but the staff are universally very happy he's on the road to recover, said Shawyer. 'When we heard what happened, it was very gut wrenching,' he said. 'Your mind starts to race on you. We kept in touch with the family members and when they told us he's going to be OK and in recovery, that's all you could wish for.' Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? 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